PARTING SHOTS
Pat Jones is editorial director and publisher of Golf Course Industry.
He can be reached at pjones@gie.net or 216-236-5854.
EXCLUSIVE JUST FOR OUR CLIENTS: A Special Column By Pat Jones
GRATITUDE
H
ave walk you up ever had a total stranger
to you and tell you that
they LOVE your product? It freakin’
rocks, doesn’t it? It’s like fi nding a
$100 bill tucked in you jeans’ pocket
on laundry day. Cha-ching!
Well, last week, the metaphorical
pockets of my metaphorical jeans were
overfl owing with Benjamins… and
I wanted to share a little about that
experience with you, our friends from
the industry.
As always, I was privileged to spend
a few lovely days at the Carolina
GCSA Conference & Show in Myrtle
Beach. I adore this event because of
the quality of the show and education,
the great people and the event sched-
ule (which, compared to other crappy
shows, actually keeps customers and
vendors in the same damned place at
I am beyond that kind grateful of passion that our from magazine readers.
inspires
the same time).
So, as always, the Carolinas event
is the best regional golf/turf show by
far. That wasn’t surprising. But, I was
delightfully surprised by something
else. I was blown away by how many
superintendents and others in Myrtle
went out of their way to fi nd me, grab
me or otherwise accost me and say
four gorgeous, wonderful words: “I
love your magazine.”
I kid you not, folks. No smoke being
blown. It was awesome.
I actually left Myrtle Beach feeling
a little torn. I hadn’t accomplished
nearly what I’d hoped from a business
standpoint but it was because I could
not walk across the show fl oor without
being stopped by a reader who wanted
to say something nice about GCI. They
thanked us for giving them a readable,
fun publication. They congratulated us
on all the changes and improvements.
They were passionate about the quality
and honesty of our columnists. These
were grown-up, tough-guy superin-
tendents who went out of their way to
share an “attaboy.” And they honestly
did use the word “love” a lot. They
were passionate about the magazine.
Thanksgiving is, at its heart, about
gratitude. I am beyond grateful that
our magazine inspires this kind of
passion from readers. Our whole team
– our editor Mike Zawacki, our sales
team Kevin Gilbride, Russ Warner and
Amee Robbins, our designer Andrea
Vagas, our web development geniuses
and a whole bunch of other talented
folks who toil behind the scenes –
have worked their asses off to help
GCI reach an astounding new level
over the past year.
As a result, we’re moving forward,
growing and improving while the rest
of the market seems to being going
backward. The recent high-level edito-
rial departures at both GCM and Golf-
dom make me even more thankful to
have an unbelievable team supported
by a stable, family-owned company
that believes in us and invests in our
product.
I’m also grateful that we have
people like you who recognize the
value we bring to this market and
who reward us with your marketing
dollars. I know many of you are on the
bubble right now as you decide how
to allocate your marketing dollars for
2011. I could just say, “We’re the best
and you should make us your No. 1
marketing partner.” Instead, I’ll say
this: ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS. I’m
100-percent confi dent they’ll say the
same things about GCI as all those
folks at the Carolinas show, so please
ask the customers you know and trust
which magazines they like best.
A major agency partner of ours did
just that within the past month. They
surveyed a group of 300 or so super-
intendents about various aspects of
marketing. This survey, which I didn’t
know existed until it was put in front
of me, showed that we were unques-
tionably the second-ranked magazine
in the market and the gap between
us and No. 1 was narrowing while the
distance between us and the other
independents was growing (and I sus-
pect that may further widen given the
recent editorial change at Golfdom).
It was nice – but not surprising – to
see what we already knew confi rmed
by a really smart, veteran marketer in
the golf industry.
So, why am I sharing all of this
shameless self-promotion with you
now? As I listened to readers in
Myrtle Beach, I was humbled by their
kind words but also frustrated that
every one of you who makes decisions
about advertising couldn’t be there
to hear them and get a sense for how
much superintendents care about
GCI.
That said, at one point during the
show, I was talking with one of you
– a client I’d only met recently – and
we were interrupted about fi ve times
by readers who came up and wanted
to tell me something about GCI. Later
he said, “Holy sh*t, Jonesy, you’re like
a rock star.” I said, “Nope…I’m just a
singer in a really, really good band.”
I hope you’ll join the band this year.
As most of you know, I have much
to be grateful for in the past year. I’d
like to add your business to my list of
things to be thankful for in 2011. GCI
50 THANKSGIVING 2010 golfcourseindustry.com